05 March 2007

Afraid that a population explosion among squirrels in a city park could pose a public health risk, Santa Monica officials are ready to try a proven method of dealing with the problem: birth control shots.

Plans call for squirrels in Palisades Park to be injected with an immuno-contraceptive vaccine to stunt sexual development. Breeding season runs from February to April, but the inoculations will take place this summer when the squirrels are most active outdoors and easier to trap.

Santa Monica would be only the second city in the state, besides Berkeley, to try the immunization program.

From today's LA Times. Seriously folks, if you can capture the critters for birth control shots, you can kill them just as easily.

Squirrels hereabouts don't just have the potential to carry any old disease, they are potential carriers for the Bubonic Effin Plague for godsakes.

I really don't think a risk of having an outbreak of the Black Death is acceptable because some folks in this city think they have to be more humane in their efforts to control the population of these bushy tailed vermin.

Anyone surprised the only other city to be this stupid in California was Berkeley?

Also, the idea that birth control truly has been a 'proven method' seems doubtful. If it's such a 'proven method' why has the only city to try it been Berkeley? Most likely it's just a method 'proven' to appease the crazier of the craziest lefties within cities that are heavily infested with active lefties. My hunch is that the UC Davis 'study' cited in support of this wasn't done by an expert in the field of pest control, but instead by some animal activist masquerading as a scientist.

This part of the article gets to the heart of why they feel it's necessary to be so stupid

Squirrel overpopulation in Palisades Park has been an issue for the last 20 years. But the debate over what to do with the estimated 1,000 squirrels in the coastal park reached a boiling point in 2005, when the city set out poison-filled traps. Joining with other activists, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals complained to City Hall that the method was painful and illegal.

"Poisons cause immeasurable suffering and prolonged deaths for the animals who ingest them," the group contended.

In February 2006, when cited again, the city tried pumping poison gas into the deep burrows where the squirrels live.

After more public criticism, City Manager P. Lamont Ewell denounced the action, saying, "as a person who loves animals, my goal is to avoid having to reduce the population of squirrels in this manner ever again."

I prefer the approach in Riverside County, it's legal to shoot the squirrels outside of city limits, so long as it's with .22 or less caliber rifle. That's probably not practical here in densely populated Santa Monica, but at least it recognizes that these vermin are just rats with a better press agent. And really, I'd love to see a group like the Riverside Varmint Callers here, but that's also impossible.

Many assume that all of California is as 'blue state' as Santa Monica and Berkeley, but the truth is, there are plenty of folks in the non-coastal counties living the reddest of 'red state' lives right here in the Golden State.

The closing quote from the article says it all, what the journalist doesn't convey is whether the jogger quoted was being derisive or admiring of our city's 'progressive edge'

Resident Mike Sheldon, who was jogging in Palisades Park recently, said he for one was not surprised by the city's action.

"Only in a city like Santa Monica would you expect this kind of behavior," Sheldon said. "Even our squirrels are living on the progressive edge."

1 comment:

They should just get neutered stray cats from the pounds of nearby locales and turn them loose in the park. Even easier than killing the squirrels themselves, and scads more fun.... For the cats, anyway.